Fidelity Giant Says Institutional Investors Are Considering Crypto

Fidelity Investments, the giant financial institution with more than 27 million customers and over $7.2 trillion in managed assets, questioned 441 institutional investors about whether they consider digital assets to be worthy of holding in portfolios. Over half of them said yes.

As reported by Bloomberg, Fidelity commissioned the survey from November to February. Out of the 441 institutional investors questioned, 72% prefer to buy investment products holding digital assets while 57% prefer to buy digital assets directly.

Moreover, the survey also found that 47% of institutional investors said digital assets are worth investing in.

Fidelity Assessing the Market for Institutional Investment in Crypto

As previously reported by IIB, Fidelity Digital Assets launched their crypto custody service to hold Bitcoin (BTC) for its institutional customers this past March.

As the firm prepares to launch other cryptocurrency services, they are trying to gauge how pensions, family offices, hedge funds, endowments, and foundations feel about investing in cryptocurrencies.

According to Tom Jessop, the president of Fidelity Digital Assets, the primary reason survey participants were concerned about investing in digital assets was due to volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and a lack of fundamentals to support the price direction for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other digital assets.

The Crypto Market Needs Improvement

The aforementioned concerns institutional investors have are still evident in the crypto markets today, as it is plagued with fraud, theft, and regulatory uncertainty.

For instance, the latest case scandal involves Bitfinex and Tether being investigated by the New York attorney general, as Bitfinex is accused of hiding the loss of about $850 million in client funds.

Another recent case of at best poor administration and at worst fraud involves Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Quadriga CX, which owes 115,000 customers $193 million in cryptocurrencies and cash following the death of its founder Gerry Cotten, who purportedly died with the exchange’s private keys.

Moreover, Fidelity Investments believe they can help the cryptocurrency space by offering highly reputable services in which institutional clients can trust.

As put by Fidelity Chief Executive Officer Abigail Johnson:

“People are relying on the institutions they’ve done business with for a long time to fulfill their objectives and needs. I’m not trying to throw shade on anybody else, but it’s up to the clients to decide.”

Will Fidelity Digital Assets bring a new level of professionalism to the cryptocurrency markets? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.